Spare this 'turkey'

In recent years when Florida TaxWatch released its annual list of the budget “turkeys” approved by the Legislature, Bay County usually received the leanest birds.

It’s amazing what happens, though, when one of your representatives in Tallahassee ascends to the leadership.

With Niceville Republican Don Gaetz at the helm of the Senate, the Legislature this year approved $14 million for a building at Gulf Coast State College dedicated to teaching science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). That earned it the distinction of being the fattest “turkey” on TaxWatch’s 2013 list of 107 appropriations, totaling nearly $107 million, that bypassed the normal budget process that the nonprofit public policy group says deserve extra consideration for a veto by the governor.

The STEM building, however, merits a reprieve.

The facility made the TaxWatch list because it was not requested by the Department of Education’s Division of Colleges and was ranked 37th out of 39 projects on a priority list. Nor did the $14 million go through the full budgeting process. Initially the House and the governor’s budget didn’t include any money for the STEM building, and the Senate budget included only $300,000 for it.

Senate President Gaetz, though, increased funding to $14 million during the conference committee. That is not unusual, although it is fair to ask that if a project is worthy, why not boost the funding at the beginning of the process instead of the end?

However, not every gobbler is created equal.

Indeed, “turkeys” aren’t quite what they used to be. The number of appropriations flagged by TaxWatch declined this year from 159 in 2012, and the amount of money has shrunk from $203 million in 2011 to $171 million last year to $106.8 million this year. That’s in sharp contrast to, say, 2006, when TaxWatch identified 489 appropriations worth $295 million.

Furthermore, the STEM building is not comparable to truly shady dealings such as the aircraft hangar then-Rep. Ray Sansom, R-Destin, tried to secure for Northwest Florida State College that also benefited a local developer and political supporter; the funding for the “Taj Mahal” First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee; or the creation of Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland, which was pushed through in 2012 by then-Sen. JD Alexander despite widespread opposition.

GCSC is a public college, therefore there’s nothing untoward about the state funding a project there. Its STEM facility was not tucked into the budget behind closed doors in the wee hours of the session. It was raised during a House-Senate conference committee, which was open to the public and open to comment. Nor does it narrowly benefit an individual or group. The STEM center is geared specifically toward education; it is not an aircraft hangar that can be dual-purposed. It would benefit the multi-county region that the college serves. Finally, Gov. Scott has made boosting STEM education a priority, and rightly so.

TaxWatch points out that a project’s inclusion on the “turkey” list “is not an indictment on or lack of faith in a program’s mission. Many of them were established with a worthy mission to serve needed communities of Floridians.” Rather, the group correctly advocates that public expenditures must be thoroughly vetted, particularly in these times of tight budgets, to ensure dollars are being spent wisely.

Thus it recommends that the governor and the Department of Education review these projects on a case by case basis to ensure they are needed and to provide accountability. The group also recommends that the Legislature create a competitive process for funding these types of projects that is data-based. If the numbers don’t add up, the funding is discontinued.

Those are reasonable expectations. We urge Gov. Scott to take a good look at the STEM center funding before making a decision on whether to veto it. We believe he will conclude that, despite bypassing the regular budgeting process, it’s still a worthy project that deserves to be funded.

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